> Yes, you are biased. Non profit means "not to make a profit", and that fits religious organizations quite well. None of them try to make a profit, therefor they are non-profit. It's not really that complicated.
Except that really isn't the case; most religions are non-profit only because you can specify quite interesting definitions for the word 'profit'.
As a case-in-point, look at the Mormon church. Mormon families are supposed to give a monthly donation of ten percent of their income to the church as 'tithing', which is tax-deductible, and of course the church is a 'non-profit'.
Church assets are estimated at over $30 billion USD, and they pull in about $5 billion annually. That's a lot of profit for a 'non-profit' organization.
This money pays for a lot of business-like activities. Salaries for high-level church officials, construction of buildings for church and public activities, global recruitment and proselytization operations, investment, lobbying activities, etc.
Some of it even makes it into humanitarian efforts, although that's part of the proselytization arm.
I've got no problem with any of this; as private citizens, they should be free to spend money however they want.
My problem is that these are all business activities. Nothing the church does is purely humanitarian; even their aid packages for disaster areas come with copies of the Book of Mormon, which I'd consider Sales and Marketing.
As such, they should pay taxes in the same way that a large corporation does.
Note that I'm not picking on the Mormons specifically; the Catholics, Methodists, Muslims, Jews, and pretty much every other major organized religion that I can think of do the same things.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finances_of_The_Church_of_Jesus...